Machine Learning Engineer applicants have rated the interview process at Instacart with 2.4 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 40% positive. To compare, the company-average is 46.2% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Machine Learning Engineer roles take an average of 18 days to get hired, when considering 5 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Instacart overall takes an average of 16 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Instacart as a Machine Learning Engineer according to 5 Glassdoor interviews include:
One on one interview: 40%
Phone interview: 20%
Skills test: 20%
Presentation: 20%
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The phone screen was surprisingly short, only about 20 minutes, focusing on my background and some general ML concepts. Then came the technical round where I had to design a ranking model for Instacart’s search results. Midway through, it hit me that I had just practiced a very similar problem on PracHub, which made me feel a bit more confident. However, the depth of the discussion, especially around metrics and cold-start items, was intense. In the end, I didn’t receive an offer, but it was a decent experience overall.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Instacart (Toronto, ON) in Sep 2025
Interview
1 round of HR screen, 4 rounds of technical
Technical:
- ML alg knowledge
- Live code - Leetcode style
- Case study: they give you a case
- Retro study: walk them through a past project
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Instacart (Toronto, ON) in Feb 2025
Interview
There are four round in total:
1 code (leetcode easy level)
2 ML concept (focus on fundamental traditional ML stuff)
3 ML system design
4 BQ and project
NDA signed for last two rounds. But the recruiter will tell you the expected topic
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Basic ML concept like l1 l2 norm/loss. concept like recall precision etc.